The Government is trying to square the sudoku of the drought, which reduces available water resources every day and forces emergency responses to be expanded on the fly. The Catalan Water Agency (ACA) has started the technical work for the construction of two new water purification stations in the lower section of the Besòs. The two new water treatment plants scheduled will be located in Bon Pastor (Barcelona) and Montcada. Both would serve to obtain groundwater, although the one in Barcelona will also capture surface water from the river. All of this would require an investment of around 100 million euros. “The objective is to have these purification stations in operation in the summer of 2025, around September,” Samuel Reyes, director of the ACA, tells this newspaper.
The Administration has already started drafting the two projects, which seek to produce about 1,500 liters of water per second. Last September, surveys were carried out and two test wells were opened, and in recent weeks new tests are being worked on. These works were not programmed in the Catalan hydrological plan 2022-2027, but they will be activated now.
The Generalitat currently lacks water treatment plants in the lower Besòs area. The two that exist are from Aigües de Barcelona: the Trinitat one, where the company is working to triple its groundwater extraction capacity (from 300 to 900 l/s), and the La Llagosta (from 100 l/s )
Reyes indicates that “if everything goes well”, all of the actions in the Besòs River would contribute between 2,000 and 2,500 l/s, which would represent 25% of the water consumed by the Barcelona area, indicates Reyes. “We believe that we can cope with the drought quite well”, since to this figure we must add the resources of the El Prat and Blanes desalination plants (2,500 liters per second), the regenerated water (1,500 l/s) and other extractions from the Llobregat and wells (2,000 l/s). All of this would total about 8,000 l/s while in the Barcelona region between 10,000 and 11,000 l/s are usually consumed.
The director of the ACA admits, however, the delays in the plan to expand the water collection at the Trinitat station, in Aigües de Barcelona. When the AVE works were carried out years ago, the aquifer was split in half, which complicated the possibilities of further extractions. And that is why it was thought to complete the collection with surface flows (from the river itself); but that forced them to buy some land. All of this has generated delays.
Samuel Reyes rejects, on the other hand, the idea of ??an interconnection of the Ebro network with the metropolitan area network (as he himself suggested last year). His opinion now is clearly contrary to this connection and has been shaped, as he says, as the options for expanding the Trinitat de Aigües station in Barcelona and the Government’s recent commitment to the two new water treatment plants.
“It is more viable to make the Besòs drinkable than the interconnection with the Ebro,” he points out. And because? “Apart from the social and environmental rejection that there may be, many owners would have to be expropriated along a 70 km route. On the other hand, a compact plant (in Besòs) takes up little space and it is enough to make a small pipe to the network,” he adds.
The new intakes of the Besòs, which a year and a half ago were only a possibility, now appear as a real option.
The mission of the Besòs resources is to cope with an extreme scenario (in which it stops raining and even the water reserves of the reservoirs disappear), so that these flows come to supplement those of the reservoirs to guarantee an uninterrupted supply. risk of service outages.
The director of the ACA replicates the opposition’s criticism when he points out that “the Government trusts everything to rain, sanctions on municipalities and ships.”
He responds that “90% of the works planned in the 2023 urgent measures law are underway” and that with subsidies to municipalities, they can reduce consumption by improving the efficiency of their networks.
On the other hand, the General Directorate of Tourism of the Generalitat is studying establishing a line of subsidies for the tourism sector (campsites) so that they can adapt their swimming pools to the use of desalinated water if they see it appropriate and there are means to do so.
However, the Government will not modify the special drought plan, so filling or refilling swimming pools will continue to be prohibited in the current emergency phase. The only exception is if sea water is used.
In any case, Samuel Reyes, director of the ACA, clarifies that if sea water is used, the saline flow cannot be discharged into the sewage network, “since the salt could damage the sewage and sanitation systems.” The option of using seawater in swimming pools is being evaluated by companies in the tourism sector.
“We are in an emergency situation. “It is the worst situation we have experienced so far, and we must understand that the measures taken are to safeguard the resources destined for domestic supply,” he argues.
Reyes maintains that there is no definition that allows tourism to be considered a “large consumer” sector, which is no reason to make distinctions and, therefore, in cases in which a municipal ordinance sets for local residents a domestic consumption limit of water should be set the same amount for a tourist. “If we travel to other parts of Catalonia to spend the night in a hotel, we are also tourists,” he argues.
The Catalan Administration has noticed a decrease in water consumption, according to data from municipal allocations corresponding to the month of December, although it now needs to be corroborated in January. The Generalitat gives freedom to city councils on how they plan to fulfill their obligation of not exceeding a limit of 200 liters per person per day for all uses, although reducing pressure is one of the options they have.
“It is up to the Agència de l’Aigua to ensure that the restrictions are met, but it is up to each city council to do so as they see fit,” says Reyes. “Girona has decided, for example, to close the showers even though it is not mandatory. Others can lower the pressure. Each one will decide; That is local autonomy,” he maintains.
At this point, the director of the ACA reminds that showers that are in facilities with swimming pools or irrigation fields must be closed in emergency II (with 67 hm3 in reservoirs), “but if it is a shower in a gym that does not have Neither the pool nor the irrigation field has to close.”
Samuel Reyes has once again recalled that the municipalities are responsible for fulfilling the obligation for the industry to reduce water consumption by 25% (in cases that are connected to the general network).
The Generalitat’s special drought plan, however, gives the option for the industry to present a savings plan, so that the ACA can accept a lower percentage reduction in the event that the consumption not related to production processes.
In March of this year, the General Directorate of Industry will call new meetings with the sector to clarify how water saving plans can be presented.
Business owners consider that there are uncertainties in the cases of industries that have previously made their savings plans or have made investments in regeneration and recycling and that do not know if they also have to cut water consumption by 25% having already achieved significant savings. .
In response to the claims expressed by the meat sector, which has asked to consider the agri-food sector as a “strategic” area and, therefore, to consider very carefully the impacts of the drop in water pressure, Reyes recalls that this last measure It is a responsibility of the town councils. “The operating companies have to be careful because the water has to reach the hospitals, the hydrants, all the facilities to be able to cook or run a washing machine,” he says.
On the other hand, the Generalitat has not considered carrying out a new dissemination campaign about the drought, with more dramatic tones, as the statements made a month ago by the director of the ACA led one to think when he stated that citizens had only “found out “of this crisis when it had affected the gyms or Barça. “There is a clear awareness of the problem; everyone talks about the drought,” he says.